4 Dead, 28 Wounded In Chicago Area Crashes

CHICAGO (STMW) — Four men are dead and nearly three dozen people were injured this weekend in crashed in the Chicago area.

A Beach Park motorist was killed and more than two dozen children suffered mostly minor injuries in a violent crash Friday morning that flipped a school bus on its side and killed the driver of another vehicle.

The bus carrying 35 students to Newport Elementary School was traveling west on Route 173 at 8:03 a.m. when it rolled through the intersection at Kilbourne Road striking the side of a southbound Jeep Wrangler near Wadsworth.

Philip Smith, 62, died at the scene after his yellow Jeep Wrangler was struck. Two other adults in a Grand Cherokee were transported to hospitals.

Twenty-three of the 35 students aboard the bus were taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville in good condition.

About 10:40 p.m. Friday, a 24-year-old driver was killed and two passengers were injured when a speeding 2001 black Audi coupe crashed into a garage in the 10400 block of South Georgia Lane in southwest suburban Oak Lawn, police said.

The identity of the driver, who was dead at the scene, is not being released pending family notification, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

The front seat passenger and rear seat passenger, both males, were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with non-life threatening injuries, police said. Two people in the house at the time were not injured, police said. The garage suffered “significant damage.”

A man was killed and another was seriously injured when a 2006 silver Lincoln hit a pole in the 4800 block of South Damen Avenue about 12:25 a.m. Saturday in the South Side New City neighborhood, police said.

The 35-year-old passenger was pronounced dead at 1:03 a.m. at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. His identity was withheld pending notification of relatives. The driver, 25, was also taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition.

Authorities believe alcohol was a factor in the one-vehicle crash, but no charges or citations have been issued, police said.

A 36-year-old man died early Saturday after the car he was driving struck a fixed object in the 8100 block of North Caldwell Avenue about 2 a.m. Saturday in north suburban Niles, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

The driver and sole occupant of the vehicle was dead at the scene, according to a medical examiner’s office spokeswoman, who declined to release his identity pending notification of relatives.

Niles police were not immediately available for comment.

Two paramedics were injured when an ambulance crashed into a school bus 8:52 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of West Grand and North Central avenues.

The ambulance was responding to a call in the 5900 block of West Grand Avenue when the crash occurred, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Joe Roccasalva.

Two paramedics were treated and released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Resurrection Medical Center after suffering non-life threatening injuries, Roccasalva said. The driver and sole occupant of the school bus refused medical treatment.